Shipworms aren’t worms

Despite the name, shipworm is not a worm but a bivalved mollusc called Teredo navalis Linnaeus. The photograph above shows a piece of driftwood on the sand at Rhossili looking rather like the head of a crocodile. The wood is riddled with tunnels created by the shipworm.

Below, you can see how the entire piece of wood has been attacked until it resembles a honeycomb. You don’t need a lot of imagination to understand how big a threat this pest was to timber-built ships in the past.

Each tunnel is lined with a chalky deposit which you can see in the close-up photograph below.

For more information on the Great Shipworm see the pages of the Marine Life Information Network.

Thank you, Linda. The link was for the Marine Life Information Network site which has a lot of information about shipworms, including references to key papers on the subject, but lacks images for the time being, hence the crossed-out camera sign. The Wikipedia link is a great alternative. Thank you.